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Airbus A330-300
The Airbus A330 is a long-range wide-body twin-engine jet airliner manufactured by Airbus. The aircraft was designed by FLDG and is in an Air Asia X livery. History Background In the mid-1970s, Airbus began developing a long-range wide-body jet known as the A300B9, which would eventually be known as the A330. The B9 was essentially a lengthened Airbus A300 with more powerful turbofan engines. The aircraft offered the same range and payload as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, but had a 25% increase in fuel efficiency. The B9 was seen as a replacement for the DC-10, L-1011 and A300. At the same time, a 200-seater four-engine version was created, known as the B11 (which would eventually be known as the Airbus A340). The B11 was originally planned to replace the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8, but would later target long-range wide-body trijets. The B9 and B11 were re-designated as the TA9 and TA11. Design The first specifications for the TA9 and TA11 emerged in 1982, where they showed a large accommodation of 410 passengers, an underfloor cargo area that could hold sixteen LD3 cargo containers and fourteen LD3s in the aft hold, double the a=capacity of the L-1011 and DC-10. In June 1985, the TA9 and TA11 received improvements, most notably the addition of the A320 flight deck and the fly-by-wire system present on the A320. The Airbus Supervisory Board approved of the development of the TA9 and TA11, which gained their present name of the A330 and A340 respectively by then. Engine Development Starting at the beginning of the TA9's development, engines were selected from Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and GE Aviation. GE offered the CF6-80C2 originally, but after studies emerged showing more powerful engines were needed, GE enlarged the CF6-80C2 from 236cm to 244cm and reduced the number of fan blades from 38 to 34, effectively creating the CF6-80E1. The new engine had a thrust of 300-320kN compared to the previous engine design of 267-289kN. Rolls-Royce also agreed to develop an engine for the Airbus A330 and created the Trent 700, with a larger diameter and 311kN of thrust compared to its predecessor, the Trent 600, of 267kN. The A330 was the first Airbus aircraft fitted with Rolls-Royce engines. Pratt & Whitney also signed an agreement that created an engine exclusive to the A330 - the PW4168. The company increased the fan size from 239cm to 254cm, enabling the engine to deliver 311kN of thrust. Like the CF6-80E1, the PW4168 had 34 instead of 38 fan blades. Production And Testing Progress Airbus' partners invested in new facilities in preparation for the A330 and A340 production. BAe bade an investment worth GBP 7M in a three-storey technical centre with 15,000-square-metre floor area. BAe also invested GBP 5M in Wales. On 12 March 1987, Airbus received its first orders from Air Inter. The airline ordered five firm orders and fifteen options. Thai Airways International placed four firm orders and four options. Airbus announced launch of the A330 and A340 programmes by April 1987, with A330 deliveries beginning in 1993. Northwest Airlines signed a letter of intent for ten A330s and twenty A340s on 31 March. BAe received GBP 450M from the UK government (short of the GBP 750M requested) to design and construct the wings. The German and French governments also provided funding, with Airbus also securing subcontracts to companies based in Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Greece, Italy, India, Japan, South Korea, Portugal, the USA and Yugoslavia. Airbus launched the A330 and A340 programmes on 5 June 1987. At the time of launch, Airbus had a total of 130 firm orders from 10 customers. Of those, 41 were A330s. Cathay Pacific placed a firm order for nine A330s in 1989. At the 1992 Farnborough Airshow, Northwest Airlines deferred deliver of sixteen Airbus A330s to 1994 after cancelling its A340 firm orders. The first A330 was rolled out on 14 October 1992 with its maiden flight on 2 November. The A330 became the largest twinjet to have flown until the Boeing 777. The maiden flight lasted 5.25 hours. On 21 October 1993, Airbus received certification for the A330 by EASA and the FAA. Revisions of the A330 operation procedures were created after a 30 June 1994 crash of the A330. Flying Trivia * The Airbus A330-300 has an "X" function that allows the cargo doors to open. * It also has a unique reverse thrust animation. Category:Airbus Category:Aircraft Category:Community Contributed Aircraft